hello, everybody. welcome. you are watching "worldwide exchange." i'm louisa boydson. >> and i'm seema mody. president obama is striking a balanced tone. >> i don't think it was an about of war but cyber vandalism that was very costly, very expensive. president obama hits back at criticism he's been upstaged by vladimir putin saying the russian leader is presiding over

a collapsing economy. and the price of crude climbing a bit higher leading energy stocks into the green. meanwhile, the saudi arabia minister says the country won't slash oil even if non-opec countries do. and the ceo of airbus says they will boost the entire aviation industry as it rolls back the first age of a-350s. >> this is a big success of our market. and we'll address a market of 5,000 and we'll get more than 50% of marketshare with every 0 50. >> you're watching "worldwide exchange." bringing you business news from around the globe. and the top story continues to be sony. president obama is moving to prevent u.s. anger at north korea from getting out of control following the hack attack on sony pictures.

pyongyang has denied involvement and vows to hit back against any u.s. retaliation. now, the president tells cnn one option to punish north korea could be to return it to the u.s. list of state sponsors of terrorism. but he says the sony act is not and act of war but cyber vandalism. >> we're going to be in an environment in this new world where so much is digitalized that both state and non-state actors are going to have to capacity to disrupt our lives in all sorts of ways. we have to do a much better job of guarding against that. >> well, sony canceled plans last week to release "the interview" in theaters on christmas. the new york post says the studio still expects to put the film out, possibly for free on its crackle.com streaming video website. sony's lawyer david boyd tells nbc's "meet the press" the movie will eventually see the light of

day. >> sony only delayed this. sony will fight to get this picture distributed, it will be distributed. how it will be distributed, i don't think anybody knows, but what sony has been trying to do is to get the picture out to the public, but at the same time be sure that the rights of its employees and the rights of the moving public are protected. >> this is a right old mess. >> it's a complicated story. every day there's a new development. >> also, i can't believe we're talking about warfare based on the release of a movie but it's escalated as well. the president is involved. the u.s. and north korea, they fought each other back in 1953 in the korean war. they have had longstanding issues, the missile program, the civil rights issue, the last thing we need is this. >> and there's an internal debate brewing on whether sony made the right decision in pulling "the interrview," the

movie, and we'll watch to see if other movie theaters would do the same thing. >> sony decided not to show the movie and realized the heat they cot from the public and the states. now they are going to be showing the movie somehow, whether for free on the streaming site but the movie will see the light of day they said themselves in that interview. >> before the cyber attack news released, the movie itself was not going to be a blockbuster. the reviews were bad, but given the concern around the cyber attack, now we could potentially see a lot of people want to watch the movie given all the controversy around it. >> it was interesting because last week we were supposed to be doing the show for the whole week and i ended up doing "squawk" because we sent jeff there. i was talking to caroline during

the show, and part of our job is to argue and present different viewpoints. is it bad taste to put out a movie about the assassination of somebody who is still alive. and we were talking about that, loads of you wrote in, and said, well, freedom of speech under all circumstances, but you could argue it's a bit of bad taste. then you could argue and say, it's even a poorer response, the response that the north koreans have had and the way they have dealt with this and with the threats about who they are going to attack or how they are going to attack in the aftermath of having this movie presented. or it was supposed to be shown. but it's an interesting debate. >> that is the other side, right? people should be able to produce whatever they want, whatever idea it is. but as and audience, take it or leave it. >> at the same time, counter argue to say would it have been acceptable if it was a movie about the assassination of a western president, even if it is a comedy. it's an interesting talking

point. >> sony got us thinking, what movie releases do you wish potentially were canceled? send us your worst movie suggestions at worldwide@cnbc.com. our personal handles are at the bottom of the screen. >> although the movies i wish were canceled are in a completely different category, with aliens and things like that. >> you don't like aliens? >> i couldn't sleep for like 15 years after seeing that. send your suggestions through. movies you wish would be canceled. we are both on twitter. all right. let's take a look at the markets this morning. stocks are up 600, higher by 0.70% or so. a vast majority of the equities open in positive territory this morning. we were flat and just a little

bit higher. originally we saw hefty gains. stateside we saw heavier moves in asia, but by and large we are being held by the energy stocks coming back again being bought again after seeing quite a bit of selling as of late. the european equity markets, to give you an early indication of how we are trading in the main markets, we are higher here. the ftse, xetra dax and cac are up somewhere near 1%. in the top stocks to watch, the u.k. listed oil prices. they are leading the way higher in europe thanks to oil prices. they have been topping the ftse 100. bp shares are also up near 2%. on the downside, delta lloyd sank to the bottom of the stoxx 600 after the group was fined 23

million euros after a disput over fixed interest rates used in calculating liabilities. then you've got italy's bmps in the red amid ongoing concerns for the capital raising plans. this after the bank's chairman pledged to complete the fund-raising by july and then insisted it would help plug a hole in the balance sheet. back to commodities, we were just talking about the price of oil. adding silver and gold into the mix. looking at slightly higher trade there. spot gold more on the move at the end of last week. brent is higher by around a percent age point, $62 per da barrel. i was looking at a print, 1.2220 was the lowest print seen in the

last trading session since august of 2012. one of the ecb governing council members was talking about tackling bonds and lower innation in the eurozone. also the ecb's vice president said the ecb would be reassessing the effectiveness of the measures put in place already in the beginning of 2015 to see whether or not quantitative easing should be an option. so euro/dollar at 1.2267. we'll talk about what that means for the equity markets. chief emerging markets economist at capital economics is joining us onset. tim, i'm going to kick it off with you. so far the u.s. markets have outperformed european markets due to large expected data. and a patient and steady rise of interest rates, but at some point the u.s. markets are look

looking profitable. could this happen in the u.s.? >> that's what we hope and that's how we position ourself. next year we'll see monetary policy that maybe there could be the way the discount markets work. if you look at 8% to 10% earnings growth across a mature market across the world, the u.s. and europe. and it's how you discount the growth coming back. if there's some sort of pseudoquantitative easing coming through. we know that move from five years ago. laterally in japan, europe hasn't really gotten that yet. so if our expectation for next year isn't so much an earnings story, i think this is sort of normalized earnings growth of 8% to 10% across the arenas, but if

we get approved equities that are not cheap -- >> evaluation is not the only thing on european earnings. it's nothing to get too excited about. >> no, but it's positive. this is a year after the market moves to 2013, we have had a lot of markets that got relatively cheaper in 2014. two bad years on the chop, that tells you something is going on and maybe the earnings expectations are not right for next year. we don't think we are at that stage. >> at what point does the data overtake what is going on in equities, especially if we continue to see deflation or see real pressure on the inflation into a deflationary scenario? >> well, we have had stagnant journeys for seven years now. the real estate markets have not performed across the u.k. for seven years now, so it's more than just the economy. and i think a little bit of a rise in tide coming from world trade will help european majors.

as we said, it's policy. i think that is the real key to for next year. in mr. draghi can get into the markets, expectations are lower for longer, that's a big help. >> what do you think, neil, right now we are trading on the interest rate difference stials that going to continue? >> i think tim is right. on the one hand, u.s. stocks fare, for what it is worth to the viewers, we are going a bit higher but not huge gains like we have seen the past 18 months. and then on the ecb, whether the ecb can fully engage with qe or goes slightly half. i think that's vigorous. the ecb poor service punctures and we don't see a full-blown qe unless it is really kicking and screaming. what that means for the financial markets, particularly bond markets being low, remains

to be seen. but certainly the macroeconomic si side. >> monetary divergence seems to be a growing trend, especially when rates rise in the u.s. will wee see massive exodus of capital out of the emerging markets providing an attractive yield into the markets into the u.s. which will now be provided that hike that we're looking for? >> the same policy divergence is something the ems has to weigh as well. the fed has more tightening and more is coming from japan and europe. i suspect all the folks will remain on the u.s. and the fed if that's the world's major central bank, the global central bank. that's really what matters in the emerging market. they send the to borrow it in dollars. i think it is quite difficult to

generalize across the emerging market, but there are certainly countries that are big oil producers in west africa and russia, venezuela, crises have pretty much baked into the picture there. >> the emerging market in 2015 would be what? >> from a macro perspective we would prefer a smaller, more open manufacturing based economies rather than, for example, mexico, some of the asian countries, they are going to benefit from the global recovery particularly in the u.s. rather than say commodity producing economies, the bricks, the largest emerging companies still have their problems they need to work through and that's going to be painful and take a while. >> surprising for some, a lot of people are questioning the mexican peso now and whether we have to relive the weakness once again, et cetera. mexico is supposed to be bolstered from the trading that it does with the u.s. >> but then it loses on the crude oil, too. one of the points we overlook with mexico is exports have a

lot of crude oil but imports a lot of refined products. to some extent, it loses on the crude side and gains on the refined oil. i think the oil price is now at 60 to 65 will take the shine off of it. >> we'll look at the potential wild card into the discussion because the greek prime minister antonio samaris is offering to hold new elections in late 2015 if they want to elect the new president. in a television address, samara surprised the nation to say he would bring independence into the government once talks were complete. >> translator: after the presidential elections, we can enlarge the government coalition with the personalities that believe in the european perspective of the country so the next stage will find us more united. it is therefore a national obligation but also common logic. >> and more on the greece story coming up in the next hour, but here's what else is coming up.

if you're looking for a game to play around the fire this christmas, stay tuned. we speak to the creator of market meltdown, the board game providing to be a big hit with bankers and fund managers. and we'll go live to tokyo to get the details on a mega merger said to challenge the leading oil and energy firm. and as the u.s. dollar index hits a multi-year high, one analyst tells us why it is time to buy the euro. that's coming up next.

you're watching "worldwide exchange." brrz president obama speaks to cnn rejecting the notion that he has been upstaged by north korea's leader. >> right now he's presiding over the collapse of his currency, the major financial crisis and a huge economic contraction. and that doesn't sound like

somebody who wants to work with me or the united states of america. meanwhile, russian that is working on restrictions in crimea saying russia would not be intimidated while the fresh sanctions are a "punishment" against crimea. china's foreign minister says the country is willing to help russia if needed, speaking to a state newspaper, they said, quote, assistance with our capacity would be offered although they thought they could overcome the current woes. we'll bring back the panel we have here. tim harris, ceo of harris capital. last week markets were fix said on the turbulence we saw, but do you think this should be focused more on the china story, the fact that we could see one of the biggest slowdowns in history for the chinese markets in 2015?

>> well, i think that's a very different story. russia is a mess. they have since stabilized their interest rates but we have yet to see that happen in the real economy. it will be a deep recession and we have started to see strains already in the banking sector. by and large, that contains russia with global ramifications of that. we see the big expansion in debt is typically a warning sign of bad things to come. china is a different story. they have really strong balance sheets behind the firewood of capital controls before things get messy. >> and they have $400 billion reserves in its balance sheet. >> yeah, it also feels like the chinese markets are opening more to international investors.

>> they are and they will continue to do so. but because of these problems with the domestic build-up of debt, they will have to move slowly in that regard, i think. >> the china story, it fascinates me. and the chinese stock market has had the 30% rally in the last three to four months, which has given a very decent year, but it's not performed as a stock market in dollar terms for four years now, ever since the market first came on the radar before the crisis of '07 and '08. but that tells me there's a potential there in private sector, not so much in the state operating area but in the private sector. and entrepreneurs pushing through now. and the channels for overseas capital has come in, particularly through red chips and hong kong, et cetera, are

much more fluid that they have been in the past. the fixation we have with the gdp. mapping gdp to is to be market performance is over many, many years. but when you have an economy in dollar terms growing at 7.5, 8, whatever the number is over a period of time, bear in mind we are talking about the low 7s number. it is lower 7s on the dem denominat denominator. more with investments and domestic demand coming through, greater wealth creation, you have to be careful what you look for there. there's an excellent piece talking about how the western luxury goods are getting hammered in russia for obvious reasons and many stop trading. and the other market, which they are doing wonderfully well in is china. >> how suppose do you want to beat the e merge markets in regards to russia? >> going back to neil's point earlier, i think that the strength of the dollar is clearly been a headwind for those who are consumers of

resources and exporters so far this year. having that balance will change because at some stage the lower import costs you'll be receiving i'm thinking that. if you look at asia, this year has been the year of china and india. the other asian markets have not done that well over a period of time, but i think if they get on the back of a growth and demand out of the u.s., out of the u.k., out of one or two of the other western economies, canada and some of the european economies moving forward next year, then i think that tells me they are in a better place. and i think they have an opportunity to widen margin as well. so the early story for them becomes better. so there's an asian story to be told, but i'm not sure i want to be looking at the resource companies and a time when the resource cycle is where it is. and i don't think we have determined that yet. >> okay. >> the downward spiral in the

rouble is a big focal point for investors. last week it brought back memories of the 1998 financial crisis. do you think the roubl has bottomed out here hitting the lows here? >> i think it's a little bit like catching a falling knife at the moment, saying whether or not the rouble has bottomed out. it will much depend on what happens to oil prices now. the russian authorities are raising interest rates aggressively tight anything the rouble liquidity. and ruled out capital control, but that's enough to help improve sentiment, i think. but they've got lucky in the sense that oil prices have stopped falling. they rallied a bit today to help the rouble. i think if oil prices go again, then really all bets are off and the rouble will follow. >> guys, thank you very much for being with us. tim, happy holidays. christmas is right around the corner are. you done with your shopping yet? >> yes, done. >> neil, thank you to you as well. keep your e-mails and tweets

coming through. find us directly on twitter. we have a person writing in to say, didn't china help the eu? and wasn't it for the fed, the economy would have failed last week? >> speaking of russia, rush that's' economic woes have led a number of the country's citizens to apply for entry to the u.k. according to office stats, the number of russians in the first nine months of the year has soared about 70% already. so obviously the economic slowdown in russia, also the volatility in the rouble has led to more citizens and wealthy russians to want to get ahead of the investor visa. >> lows in the uncertainty. in paris the ceo of france's largest bank asked about his concerns surrounding the geopolitical risks, especially in russia. >> as well as they have been, for example, the geopolitical

risks, who knows who can predict that type of risk. but first the monetary policies are different from expectations. this is and extent of liquidity. who knows the price changes that can be relatively brutal. we would say it's more around th that. he's looking for progress but no miracle. >> are you concerned that the confidence could improve over the next year? >> it is really still by conviction. if you look at the situation in ukraine, the economic situation, the economic situation, the banks in europe, there is a common interest by the three parties to find an agreement. and my connection is the opportunity in the first half to find a political solution for

that situation. so that effectively we are avoiding in each of the regions too much of this crisis. >> so you're not supporting the scenario of another cold war? >> not by central scenario. the party is at least in europe, ukraine and russia have a common solution. >> in business, can you determine that the decision is committed to russia in eastern europe? >> yes, first of all, let me remind you russia is 3% of the exposure at default. and that's not in eastern europe or the same in russia. this is one of the best in the market and one of the strongest countries in europe. now, in russia, again, yes, we look at the long-term. let me say, what we see today is to a certain extent less opportunity for certain activities. but on the other happened, we

see that on the ground. some of our clients, in particular, the multinational company that is requesting us local financing. this is for more local financing of the economy. we, of course, run into a strong risk and we pull through this movement that has retail operations outside france to reduce the funding provided by the parent company. >> more on that interview throughout the show. still, what goes up must come down according to an oil expert. neil atkinson joins us after the break to tell us what the oil trade is.

you're watching "worldwide exchange" bringing you business news from around the globe. hi, everybody. welcome back. this is "worldwide exchange." the u.s. punishes north korea for the sony hack attack as japan says it will support washington. president obama is striking a balanced tone. >> i don't think it was an act of war, i think it was an act of cyber vandalism that was very costly, very expensive. president obama also hitting back at criticism he has been upstaged by vladimir putin saying the russian leader is presiding over a collapsing economy. the price of crude climbs a

bit higher leading energy stocks to the green. meanwhile, saudi arabia's oil minister says they won't slash production even if non-opec nations do. and the ceo of airbus telling cnbc that oil prices will boost the entire aviation industry. this as it rolls out the first batch of a350s. >> this is a big success for our partners. and we will address the market of more than 5,000 long range aircraft in the world. and we'll get more than 50% of the market share. all right. checking in on the european equity markets, now we are trading higher across the board. we are flat to a tad bit higher with strong session in asia. we saw strong sessions stateside. and it does seem like the buying is coming once again from the new orleans gas company seeing slight gains in the price of

oil. >> let's bring up the price of oil because we have not been seeing a rebound over the last couple of days and the rebound continues in today's trade here monday morning. we are looking at light crude trading at $57.69, up just 1% on the day. whereas brent crude is trading just above $62 a barrel. i'm still learning the terminology up 1.3%. >> a tough weekend, huh? a lot going on. thank you. let's get the trade on what to expect going forward. saudi arabia first said on sunday it would not trim oil output even if non-opec nations do. speaking at a conference in abu dhabi, the countries' oil minister said he would not believe current oil prices but believe they would improve. let's bring in neil atkinson. why is the price of oil

rebounding? >> it's a bungee price that has gone all the way down and hit the bottom, bounced up a little bit, down a little bit and it's going to find some sort of equalibrium. the problem is we don't know how many bounces we have left in the bungee. for the time being, the price has settled near $60 a barrel as you were saying in your introduction. when you look at the fundamentals of supply and demand over the next few weeks into the first few months of 2015, there's still plenty of supply coming into a market where demand is still relatively weak. so purely on that basis it would not be a surprise if the price has a downward momentum left in it but we can't be sure. >> i'm looking at the front page of the financial times this morning and you have the uae energy minister being quoted as saying that the main reason for the fall in the price is the irresponsible production of some producers outside of opec in a

similar line talking about the lack of non-opec corporation. that's the key contributor to the sharp decline. >> well, at the opec meeting at the end of november in vienna, they sat down with the venezuela colleagues with ministers from mexico and russia to see if they could get cooperation from them. it was not forthcoming for various reasons. no cooperation between opec and non-opec would be worth anything unless the united states were to participate. that isn't going to happen either because it's an open economy, lots of individual players, that will not happen. but opec will not cut its production. it will not meet again. and the reasons for that go back into the midst of time. and i promise this is brief. the saudis remember what happened in 1986 when the oil price collapsed. opec met four times in 1986 as successfully cutting production with a floor under the price. all that achieved was the high cost producers at the time, they

got a free pass. fast forward to 2014, if opec were to cut production dramatically, increase the price, it puts the floor under the high cost producers in the united states. so the uae minister and other opec ministers say, why should we do this? >> can the oil price continue this rally? if the exporter is not going to cut production? >> i hesitate to call it a rally but i take your point. it's a very modest rebound. saudi arabia has made its stance absolutely clear. it is not cutting production. so if youing will at the supply/demand balance, it looks as if because of the excess of supply and demand to clear the market, that price will almost certainly have to fall. what we don't know is how far. meanwhile, when you look at the supply -- demand fundamentals further into 2015, the lower oil price can achieve a combination of two things. number one, it could choke off

the growth in production from the non-opec high cost producers. and number two, it could stimulate a higher rate of oil demand growth. if both those things happen in some combination, the market starts to balance, there's a floor and the price will then start to rise. >> i always wonder with these things how much of it turns into trade. especially when looking at, you know, holiday season, volatility, light trade, things like that. we go through certain levels and cell signals are put on and you see big trades following that. i'm not sure we're done with the seesawing. >> no, as i said at the beginning, i see it as a bungee drop where it goes from a little higher to a drop. it seems to be a modest rally currently as we stand. that's absolutely true. but again, my entire career is

based on and off looking at the actual fundamental numbers. if you look at them, there's plenty of supply coming to the market. demand growth is nothing like as strong as we thought it would be a year ago, so there's still that fundamental overhang in the market to mean prices could yet go further before, i think, in the later part of next year as does the saudi minister, could recover. >> it does not feel like anyone is trading on the fundamentals. >> it is dictating the price of the oil move, right? >> if you look at the numbers, they are showing a clear picture, particularly when you look to the later part of 2015. but of course, how low do we have to go before the recovery starts? that's the burning question. but also, i think, it's astoundingly premature for people three weeks or four weeks after a very, very important opec meeting, which had a momentous decision to suddenly

decide we are in a new era. this is yet another new normal. we have not had a new normal for a few weeks now. >> and the opec emergency meeting is being announced in june. it is not an emergency meeting. >> right. they have to meet it by statute and they will. and, you know, there is no chance that less than four weeks after they meet in see nina with the statements from the saudi minister particular and the uae minister are supporting that could not be clearer. how many times do they have to say this? >> many. we are talking to deaf ears. neil, thank you very much for being with us. happy holidays. >> you, too. >> merry christmas. benea neil atkinson there. tunisia is stepping closer to democracy. 88-year-old benji spd subsidi

says he won by a clear margin but official results are due out today. we were just discussing oil. london producer afrien received a preliminary offer from nigeria that set a january 19th deadline saying there's no certainty a deal will be made. taking a look at shares, it's a big mover today up about 15.6%. and japan's second biggest oil distributor is nearing a deal for a rival economy that could be worth around $4 billion. we have more from nikkei with the story live from tokyo. hi, demi. >> reporter: hi, thank you. japan's number two oil distributor is in talks to acquire the country's number five player showa shell. they market cap is roughly 3.1 billion and idemitsu is offering

them part of the market price. the purchase of showa shell would give it 30% of the japanese oil market comes close to 34% held by the industry leader. today showa shell shares rose by 28% and idemitsu by 0.5 kt. they are expected to sign a basic deem as early as february with idemitsu making an offer in the first half of next year. and a stake of roughly 35% for rodex shell will sell its shares to idemitsu and keep it from oil refinery sales in japan. a growing number of fuel-efficient vehicles and a shrinking population have led to the country's demand for gas leap decline by more than 20% from its peak in 1995. so with the success of competition and thin margins, idemitsu and showa shell are looking to benefit from economies with a steal hoping to invest in southeast asia and

other markets where demand is expected to rise. that's all from the nikkei. back to you. >> thank you very much. we'll talk very soon again. thank you. now all hail the fat one, no? not santa claus. we are talking about spain's annual bumper christmas lottery. it really is a bumper. this year's el gordo will see $2.2 million in christmas money distributed. you can see them there still pulling the numbers. it's been very exciting. >> they should put that money into the economy, no? >> i think other people feel the same way. i was just reading in "the guardian" that the world's most unluckiest man was the only resident not to win a share of this massive lottery pool. >> i wonder what other families who have won in the past are doing with the money. that's a big win. 2 billion euros? >> it doesn't all go to one

person. >> okay. >> loads and loads of people get prizes. so again, there was one guy in this village and he was the only guy who didn't get part of the prize money. you would feel a bit left out. what would you do if you won a nice portion? say you won $500,000 pounds. >> diamonds and rubies and donate a lot to charity. >> this is after -- >> a little of both, right? we can't mess with the stock market, we are banned from that. >> if you win in the lottery, let us know what you spend the money on and what you would spend your money on. i don't think i would tell anybody. >> you just couldn't come to work. >> i just wouldn't say anything. once you tell people that you're loaded, then your problems likely increase ten-fold. suddenly you have friends in funny places popping up. >> yeah, i would notice that those people who are in my

network that are quite wealthy, they have to treat people with a slight hesitation because they don't know if they are friends for their money or for their personality. >> maybe they don't want to call you back, seema. deal with it. >> we'll keep you updated on the results out of that lottery in spain. but still to come, ready to roll the dice. this christmas louisa and i speak to the creator of market meltdown, the new board game making waves this season among the bankers and hedge funds. we'll get you details after the break.

welcome back, everybody. we are glad you are with us this morning. we are in the runup to christmas, aren't we? >> we are. >> airbus will deliver the first a350 to qatari airlines. the rollout comes amid fresh fears for the expensive a380 program. earlier our colleagues on squawk box spoke to the ceo and asked whether the manufacturer could cancel the super jumbo line. >> this is a fantastic aircraft.

we recharge financially next year and the message is clear. in the future our goal is to maintain, break even or to become positive. and we don't need a new version of the a380 now. this market is doubling every ten years in size and the aircraft a380 will find a way. so for the next three years, we'll be at 15, 16 or 17. so we are not in future of the long-term future of the a380 and i'm sure it will be a great future. >> are you going to beat airbus -- boeing, do you get bragging rights for 2014? >> well, it's difficult to know. and we are not focused on that. clearly we have over 1,000 net delivery this is year after a record year last year. so we have a very successful a320 with 60% marketshare. we have a good success of the

larger yield with firm orders right now. the airlines are select ed, so yes, it will be a fantastic year for us. we will be number one or very close to number one. this is not the point. we have more than 6,000 aircraft in the backlog, so it means eight years of work. >> fabrice, how are you analyzing the impact of the lower oil price on orders next year? will airlines begin to want multiple orders for the aircraft because they can still get away with flying the older fleet at lower costs? >> for some airlines, probably. but globally, what happens is the airlines buy aircraft for the next five, six years, seven year deliveries. and who knows the oil price at

that time. we believe that the airlines will want to buy new jets. why? because 50% of the aircraft is fuel. so when we come up on the market with 15% to 20%, the more performing aircraft this is for the airlines very important. we also have a very positive impact that is lower fuel price means higher revenues and higher margins for the airlines. so we can affirm new aircraft. overall i would say it's probably positive and it will stabilize later on. and this is, i think, very good for the aircraft manufacturer. >> so that was the ceo of airbus talking to cnbc about the impact on the price of oil and the aviation industry. now, sky mark shares are moving down in tokyo after airbus said it would sue the airliner in the

u.k. court over its canceled a380 contract. airbus canceled the order for six super jumbo jets in july after japan's third largest carrier failed to raise cash for the $2 billion order. you can see skymark airlines down more than 16% today. meanwhile, emirates is keeping a close eye on the future of the a380 since it is the largest operator of the aircraft in the world. our own yousef asked the emirates president for his view of the troubled program. >> i think they will break even sooner than that. they have 300 to 400 aircraft on order. once they get past 250 they will have broken even. as far as the idea that they would cancel the program, i think that was slightly take up out of context.

i'm reliably told that is off the table. >> you have indicated in the past that emirates airline would place a substantial order for the revised a380, how many more planes would you be willing to buy? >> we have 57 at the moment. we have another whatever it is, 80 or so to come. 83 to come. once we take all of those, we will then start replacing the older ones. in fact, we'll start replacing the older ones sooner. so it is likely for a start we will replace 140 with 140. what wdc does is allows us to take that seat, that actual count up to 200 aircraft. so it's 140 and then in the fallness of time another 60. so we will continue to roll the airplanes out after their 12 or 15-year life. >> so have you entertained the scenario where the a380 is

discontinued? >> look, it is not an area we really like to entertain. the 380 is the primary vehicle of choice for us. it is our flagship. it has great economics. we fill it to 82, 85, 87% all of the time. our consumers love it. we would not like to think emirates would continue without the 380. of course, if it isn't there for a strange reason, does this mean emirates would stop performing? >> of course not, we have been as good as we always have been. but the a380 is a good aircraft and for the life of me i can't understand why other carriers cannot see the attraction to the extent of placing orders to the level that this would take concern about the continuation away. >> and it is the biggest and busiest day of the year for ups. the company expects to deliver, get this, 34 million packages today. the most in company history. it's also a big test following

last year's embarrassing and costly holiday disaster when millions of packages did not arrive in time for christmas. louisa, that's why you didn't receive your present, it cost lost in the mail in case you were wondering. >> so i should get double this year. >> last year's mistake was due to last-minute online shopping and bad weather. u.p.s. has spent a half billion to quickly reroute packages, so hopefully this year all packages reach their destination with no mistakes. >> can i say, on behalf of the package providers and package deliverers, i'm sure they don't want me to speak for them, but you're stupid if you wait an hour before christmas to -- you go online and buy your present and you anticipate your mother will still receive it. >> well, that's wishful thinking and many people wait until the end. >> there are 6 billion other people out there trying -- >> are you telling me you are done with your christmas shopping? >> i am, actually. >> that's impressive. that's not the norm.

>> except for you. >> except for me? >> yes. >> you still need to get me my present. >> i still have one outstanding. you? >> i have not done too much. i leave on the 24th to go home to oregon and hope to do some shopping when i get home, maybe, before christmas. >> so tight. >> i know. but i know exactly where i need to go, the shop and i'll just go in and buy it, pack it and put it under the christmas tree. >> you are lucky you are not dayish because our christmas is actually the 24th. so you would be late, really late. tomorrow is expected to be the busiest shopping day in britain's high streets. europe is predicting 1.3 billion pounds to be spent on the combined 34 million transactions. according to the card service giant, sales are set to increase between 6% to 7% over last year. this is also very cutely, we have been asking because of the massive lottery taking place in

spain, we can what you would spend the money on the you won a huge pile of cash. el gordo, if i would win, i would search the world for a very best friend. oh, i got teary eyed reading that during the break. louisa, i'm sure many people love you. jeff writes, if i won the lottery, i would not advertise it at all but would want to open a cafe like those popular in japan. go for it, jeff, why not? why not? keep your e-mails coming through. wilfred, go on vacation. i think he misses us. he misses the show. >> he's so funny. still to come on the show, it's said to be quite a few days in the run-up to christmas, but can the markets close out with a bang? we'll discuss that. xkç

these are your headlines from around the world. >> president obama says sony's attack is not an act of war. >> i don't think it was an act of war but i think it was an act of cyber vandalism that was very costly, very expensive. and the rally looks to continue after the best week in wall street in almost two years. a rebound in oil prices drives energy stock prices higher in europe. speaking of oil, saudi arabia's oil minister stands his

ground saying the country won't slash production even if non-opec nations do. and mourners continue to leave flowers and candles at a memorial for the two new york city police officers killed by a lone gunman this weekend. >> you're watching "worldwide exchange" bringing you business news from around the globe. all right. and it was a volatile week of trade last week. markets fixated on the turbulence we saw in the russian rouble. it was interesting late in the week the attention turned to what janet yellin had to say in her commentary about when and if rates will rise in 2015. markets seem to focus on that and stocks nearly closed at session highs on friday. >> we are definitely taking cues from the central bank and from yellen, definitely the fed and more and more the ecb in the anticipation that q1 is going to be the point where we see

quantitative easing. they indicate that they are going to reassess what measures have been put in place already to see if they work or they need to do more. and more and more the policymakers in europe are towing the line to say, guys, we need to do quantitative easing. >> we should call this the central bank easing. perhaps the market isn't focused enough on the fundamental data and that should be driving markets higher, not just what the fed says and what the ecb says. >> you don't want to fight the fed. and the trend is your friend until the end, my friend, right? so we've had certain trends that have been very much in place, one of them being the oil trade down over the last couple of weeks. i'll make a bet with you. >> let's make a bet. >> do you think it's going to go up? >> i think the sell-off is done. >> i don't think it's done. i don't think it's done. we'll see. >> i like this. let's take a look at u.s. futures as i was just telling you, a big market run on friday. but now the dow seeming to continue the rally on wall

street. looking at a gain of 84 points. the nasdaq trading at a 14 1/2 high up early in trade. the energy stocks are the best sector last week with the s&p energy sector thanks to the small rebound we saw in the price of oil. now we are still trading at multi-year lows in brent crude. look at the european markets rally. the ftse 100 up 1%. the xetra dax, thanks to the uptick in sentiment and german sentiment, we saw this post one of the best weeks in over a year. and right now it continues to run higher up about 64 points. france and italy also seeing a gain in the ftse and the italian markets up 200 at one point. so triple-digit move to the upside for italy. >> yeah. and italy tending to be more volatile as well in a given session. we are still looking at a lot of political uncertainty in italy. read the ft if you have not read

it. highly recommend it with the snap elections that are right around the corner. sweden has another snap election coming up. so we'll be talking more about that in the next couple of weeks. when it comes to the bond market, you'll see buying in the ten-year italian and gild. the german ten-year bond is pushing lower with yields now moving up. i say up again but we are still at the multi-year lows on the yield below 6% at the home. and the ten-year in the u.s. holding on near the 2% level. currencies, i was just talking about the euro dollar and it's lower than what we have seen in europe trade against the u.s. dollar. you are seeing a reversal in that but we have hit a prescript of 1.2220 in friday's session. so we are just seeing a little bit of buying on the back of that multi-year low. again, the dollar against the yen a bit higher. then you've got the dollar against the russian rouble slightly lower, so we are seeing the gains in the rouble today.

just evening out the lost gain we have seen of late. commodities, we'll see if oil continues to go higher or move lower again. you have brent shy of 62 per gi barrel. and brecrude pretty flattish. brian reynolds is a chief market strategist at warson securities. thank you so much for getting up early to be with us. what do you think is going to be driving the markets heading into 2015? >> well, the last five-and-a-half years have been about financial engineering. we need to make 7.5% or a low yield environment. so they have been pouring money into funds with long term capital management to put cash on the corporate balance sheets and companies are buying the stock back. and the buy-backs and mergers

have been the only thing to drive stock prices up the last five years. >> brian, the recoveries we saw last week, is that a good or bad sign about future market performance? >> well, most professional equity investors are underweight stocks. the economy is not that great, so for five years people have been looking to sell stocks on anything but bad news. declining oil prices, i have bin on the show for the last year and a half talking about the bursting commodity bubble. that was good to set an all-time high in december until they were scared it would crush the corporate bond market and we had a panicked sell-off that we have had so often in the last five years. what is the panic -- once that's run its course, the buy-backs reengage and the financial engineering takes stocks back to and through the highs. that's awful for performance because people then have to chase the stocks higher that they sold lower. >> brian, we were just talking at the top of the hour, seema

and i, about what some of the trends are that are in place. and i was saying, well, we're really looking at the central bank trend being very intact. we had a guest on here at the top of the last hour talking about how he thinks the u.s. has run its course and the european equities have outperformed in the u.s. the next year. will you agree with that? >> not necessarily. because i think that financial engineering in the u.s.accelera. we'll have a more intense credit boom because the fed is going to raise yields at some point next year, probably in the middle of the year. when the yields go up, the credit gets more intense. so i'm looking for more financial engineering, more buy-backs and more mergers and acquisitio acquisitions. it might be a neck-and-neck favor on one side of the pond or the other. >> and taking a look at recent market performance, brian, interestingly enough the dramatic decline in the price of oil did spook investors at

first. but then we saw a little bit of a rebound here trading at the multi-year lows. but we should point out the dow and the s&p 500 are basically now flat for the month of december. they have been able to erase the losses for the month with the dow slightly down with the s&p 500 up .30%. could we see the markets move higher? >> well, we think that the panic reached a percentage of last week. and that means that if history is a guide in these v-shaped recoveries, we should be stronger in the next month or so. and if you look at the seasonals, the seasonals are in your favor at this time of the year. but what is really important here is that the next week or the week after that starts the annual january corporate bond issuance surge, all the indications we have is that it will be a tremendous success. and that will mean more

financial engineering beyond january. >> brian, chief market strategist at rosenblat securities. thank you for your time. last week the energy sector was the best performing sector gaping about 9%. so you're starting to see a little bit of bargain hunting here after the volatility to the downside of energy stocks. >> it was all about when do you see there's still value. when you say there's still value there, it's also interesting there's a lot of talk about the good f.t. today. they are just talking about whether or not there's going to be more merger activity -- >> in consolidation. >> because of the price of oil. >> that's something to watch out for the next year. we'll give you the rundown of what to watch today. trading day november existing home sales are out at 10:00 a.m. eastern time. sales are forecast to have dropped last month after rising more than 1% in october. now just one earnings report today, that's steelcase, that

specializes in office furniture. now we need to look at the other top stories today. mourners have been leaving flowers and candles at a makeshift memorial for the two new york city police officers who were killed by a gunman on saturday. the gunman fled to a subway station and then killed himself. president barack obama has called new york's police commissioner offering federal assistance. the authorities say that the man had a long criminal record. and looking to prevent anger against north korea from getting out of control following the attack on sony pictures. pyongyang says they will go against any u.s. retaliation. the sony hack is not an act of war but rather an act of cyber vandalism according to president barack obama. >> we are going to be in this environment, in this new world where so much is digitalized,

that both state and non-state actors are going to have the capacity to disrupt our lives in all sorts of ways. we have to do a much better job of guarding against that. >> and as you may know by now, sony kablcanceled plans to rele "the interview" on christmas day. they hope to put the film out for free on their sony website. "meet the press" is told that the movie will eventually see the light of day. >> sony only delayed this. sony has been fighting to get this picture distributed, and it will be distributed. how it's going to be distributed, i don't think anybody knows quite yet. but it's going to be distributed. and what sony has been trying to do is to get a picture out to the public, but at the same time be sure that the rights of its employees and the rights of the movie going public -- >> it is interesting to see just how heated this whole that i think has become. >> it's one movie that has now

become the threat of national security and has brought in the president of the united states to address this hot and controversial issue. >> and talking about it, it's not a declaration of war. it is just amazing to be talking about this. amazingly, we were asking which movies you think should be canceled with a number of you writing in. wilfred frost has been tweeting in and says "the matrix 2" and the third one were a huge disappointment. >> i disagree. i liked both of those. >> and others are writing in, james bond fans, they wish that certain films like "moonbreaker" and "point of solace" were not made. have you seen those? >> i liked them. i wouldn't cancel those. >> after i saw the one with the guy and the teeth -- >> a little scary. i'm getting the sense you don't

like scary films. >> i don't do scary. you know what, life is tough enough. >> you like romantic comedies? >> i like to think about it in a nice way. >> note to self. no scary movies for you this christmas. >> excellent. e-mail us at worldwide@cnbc.com and tweet us @cnbcwex. our personal handles are at the bottom of the scream. and the final adventure of "middle earth" played out this weekend. "the hobbitt" topped the box office with $96 million since opening on wednesday. the movie has taken in $265 million overseas. wow, that's one to watch. that was boosted by higher returns from the imax showings to contribute about $30 million. >> i still can't get my head around, you go from "planet of the apes" in some of those movies with the masks.

and now you look at the incredible effects. it's so real. >> a lot has to do with the innovation taking place in silicon valley. >> yes. i mean, look at this. >> it looks so real. are you still searching for the man or woman who has it, meaning you still need a gift? the new board game could be the trick. post office anymore. [ male announcer ] with stamps.com you can print real u.s. postage for all your letters and packages. i have exactly the amount of postage i need, the instant i need it. can you print only stamps? no... first class. priority mail. certified. international. and the mail man picks it up. i don't leave the shop anymore. [ male announcer ] get a 4 week trial plus $100 in extras including postage and a digital scale. go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again.

president obama says the sony attack is cyber vandalism, not an act of war. >> and we look to continue with wall street with futures pointing higher after the investment two years in the s&p 500. and oil could recover some of its losses. now, this is something that might get you going this christmas. senior financial services workers are expecting a 21% rise in their payouts this year according to the new london survey. they predict their bonuses will rise to just under 125,000

pounds. the company that conducted the survey said improving market conditions were mind the improved sentiment although some warned that workers could be overly optimistic. so nevermind the latest playstation or xbox game makes waves this christmas. one company is taking a bet on the classic board game. market meltdown is the name of it and lets you navigate your way around your own, very own financial crisis. and it's anticipated it could be a big hit this year, especially among the banking people out there. joining me is will sorro, the creator of market meltdown. hi, will. >> good morning. >> good morning. are people really going to want to buy a game in order to go through another financial crisis? >> well, i think so because it's -- this is the game here. it's a family game. so it's very accessible. and it's -- you start with 900 million pounds, which is not a

bad fund to kickoff with, and you have to gamble -- you have to take bigger and bigger risks to try to stay afloat. everybody gets wiped out, so if you really like the buzz and you like to try to make a fortune while everyone else is losing money around you in a financial crisis, then i think you would find it a lot of fun. >> as opposed to monopoly, you start off very wealthy. i was reading that you fly private jets around the road and go rogue to cover your bad trades, you have a quantitative easing card and there are rate hikes. >> yes. ultimately everybody gets wiped out. you just have to try to remain afloat longer than your competitors to win the game. >> this is family game, but who is your primary customer? >> we designed it for people in finance. in fact, we found that john

louis in chelsea has sold the most. so it seems like city workers have been flocking to buy it. >> bankers and hedge funds, those who think if they could have been in the financial crisis they know how to solve it. >> yes, had they been there, they feel like they could have -- it almost gives them a second shot at doing it again. and that was part of the reason why we up veinvented the game tw you how not to behave to avoid financial crisis in the future. >> it sounds stressful after a long day of looking at red on the screen to come home and see more red. when did the game come out? >> in fact, it came out in 2012. but we were a small independent publisher so it has taken time for us to get our product onto the market. so it really launched across fort mason, john lewis this

year. >> if you have not found the present for your wife yet, this is kind of last-minute, but go out to get market meltdown for your wife. i'm sure it is a hit. in all seriousness, i can see why it would resonate with people. >> yes, i mean, you don't actually -- it doesn't go into too much detail about equities and bonds and credit default swaps and that sort of thing. but the stock market is a roulette wheel. so it's really about having fun. and it is also about cash flow management, debt management, risk management, that sort of thing, but ultimately it's fun. that's the point of it. it doesn't go into too much detail and doesn't feel like work. >> all right. we'll leave it there. will sorrell, thank you for bringing your game to us. i look forward to hear how sales go this holiday season. founder of market meltdown, appreciate it. sticking with the christmas theme. one person on amazon is offering the artificial pink tree that

can be yours for $9,993. that is far above what any luxury department store is offering for that are christmas trees. >> $9,993. that's a bargain. i wonder why. >> it must be made of jewels or something. i don't know. >> it is made of sapphires and rubies. >> if you head to our website, you can get all the details there on that pretty in pink christmas tree. >> you could also just go out to get a normal christmas tree and spraypaint it pink. >> or get a plastic one and save trees. >> you could do that, too. put live candles on the trees in den mark. >> that's a fire hazard. >> well, you always have a big pail of water. >> what if you have to leave the house? >> you blow them out. >> how does the tree hold the candles?

>> you put the candles in the tree and then you hold hands and sing. >> i need to come home with you some year. gm agrees to stay the course despite the drop krauf in gas prices. is anyone buying? find out more on "worldwide exchange."

is

. hello, everybody. welcome back. you're still watching "worldwide exchange" this morning. i almost forgot the show. because i do "closing bell" this afternoon, too. "squawk" last week. oil prices right now, i wouldn't call it a rally, seema. >> rebound. >> i wouldn't call it a rebound. just a bit of buying after a sell-off of some 50% since last summer. >> since mid-last week until now, we have seen a us is taped rebound. we are still trading in multi-year lows, but we are moving off the lows oil has hit. >> 50%. >> since june of 2014. gas prices are declining again in the u.s. the latest survey shows they have plummeted more than 25 cents on average in the past two weeks to $2.47 per gallon. prices are down more than $1.25 since may. the lowest level in five-and-a-half years. the lowest average price for the gallon of gas in the u.s., where

is that? you can find that in tulsa, oklahoma. that's at $2.06 per gallon. aren't you happy we are going back? now you can drive a whole lot. >> i'm not a big fan of driving, though. i like to walk and take the bus. i'm not a big driver. >> i don't have a car. >> yeah, i don't have one here but back in the u.s. sticking with cars, general motors is committed to small fuel-efficient cars even though the recent drop in oil has pushed u.s. consumers the buy bigger suvs and trucks. the gmc cfo chuck stevens tells the financial times it's a very important part of the company's strategy to pursue l electrification of vehicles. and our next guest says now is the time to buy the euro. stay with us after the break to find out more.

5:30 a.m. in new york. welcome to "worldwide exchange." i'm seema mody. >> and i'm louisa. these are your headlines from around the world. japan says it will support washington but president obama strikes a balanced tone. >> i don't think it was an act of war. i think it was an act of cyber vandalism that was very costly, very expensive. >> the sensor rally set to

continue after the best week in wall street in almost two years. a rebound in oil prices drives energy stock prices higher in europe. and saudi arabia's oil minister stands his ground to say the country won't slash production even if non-opec nations do. and mourners continue to leave flowers and candles at the memorial for the two new york city police officers killed by a gunman this weekend. >> you're watching "worldwide exchange" bringing you business news from around the globe. and will the wall street momentum continue. the dramatic decline in oil had spooked the broader market but now the s&p and dow have erased their losses for the month of december. right now futures are pointing to a higher open. keep in mind on friday oil giants, exxon, mobile, chevron

were all up. energy rebounding, will it continue the european stocks with the ftse 100 up .80%. the xetra dax is trading below 10,000. it moved up 70 points for the german markets. the french markets are up 33 points. and remember the marquee event in italy will be the publication of three applications around the renze labor market reform. but back to the u.s. dollar that has been in focus hitting the highest intraday level since march of 2009. so pretty much a five-year high for the u.s. dollar. on the flip side, the euro continues to weaken in trade. that's been in place all year trading at a two-year low against the u.s. dollar. so we'll get market reaction.

steve sugarroot is chief strategist at stansbury research. steve, i'm betting on the euro? >> i haven't put my money on it yet. the idea is that louisa brought it up earlier, the trend is your friend until tend. and i believe we are finally reaching that point in this dollar trade and the euro trade where we're reaching the end of this amazing trend. and what's happened really is there's nobody left to buy the dollar, there's nobody left to short the euro. we're seeing extremes in speculator positions and speculator short positions in the euro. so this is a moment based on history where you want to actually -- this is where, when you reach the extremes with the opportunity for speculative trade that lasts three to four months based on sentiment, so i think we have a bottom in the euro or are extremely close to

it based on sentiment right now. >> hello, steve. good morning, it's louisa. >> good morning, louisa. >> i think all the other analysts i have spoken to think we still could go down to clip 115 before we see the turn-around and have the trade that's there. when do we know, what is the catalyst that will tell us whether or not that turnaround is going to happen? >> right. i mean, you can't know the exact bottom but we have reached that point where we are speculating there's no one left to short it. so the bottom is very, very near. and what i would simply do, the safest way to make the trade, would be to wait for a small uptrend. even just a 2-cent uptrend would be enough to go along the euro for speculative trade. it could be a 10% move based on history up in the euro. so i think that's a great

opportunity. >> as louisa just pointed out, most experts look for the euro to unveil additional monetary easing, perhaps in sovereign bond buying in january. but let's talk about the u.s. dollar. it's been trading at multi-year highs. the big concern is what is that going to do to profitability, specifically the multinationals that do business overseas? >> well, louisa, i'm sorry, seema, you and louisa talked about this earlier. the central bank story is a much bigger story in the stock market right now than what could happen with the dollar and such. what we have seen is central banks have been the mainstory in the markets for 5 1/2 years. and i don't want see that story changing. what i mean is i believe stock markets will be bullish, i'm bullish for 2015 in the u.s., in europe, in china and in japan. i think basically it's all about a central bank story. and i think just as this

happened over the last five years, the central bank story would overwhelm any other factors really. >> so coming back then, steve, to next year and to trade, i mean, you're a chief strategist. we've had this massive correction in oil down 50% since the summertime. we've had a big play in eurodollar with big plays in equities as well. big plays in bonds, too. we have had big plays in the emerging markets. what are you betting on for 2015? >> well, i really like china now actually, even though the chinese asian market has soared so much. it's still very underowned by institutions and foreign investors. so if china a-shares are too bold to call for you, china h-shares, the ones that trade in hong kong, this is an incredible opportunity. these are china's largest companies trading in single-digit multiples. it is really an incredible opportunity. i also am still very long in the

u.s. even though we have had the incredible run. and i think that europe is a very unique situation where we have dividend yields in europe close to 4% where bond yields are less than a percent. it's truly an extraordinary situation for european equities. so i'm very long equities in 2015. >> let's understand your bullish trade on china going to 2015. does that mean you're betting on further central bank intervention? >> well, yes. it's been very interesting. china has been very much directing things behind the scenes that they really created this bull market to a certain extent. when we have seen the chinese authorities get behind the chinese stock market, they seem to do it once a decade. and the gains can be extraordinary. twice this decade chinese stocks have gone up by over 100% in a very short period of time. and right now we are in one of those moves that's significantly directed by china. and china easing is just part of

that big story. so yes, i mean, when you have china's government support essentially backing your bull market, you want to be in that market. >> china bull. steve, thank you for your time. chief strategist at stansbury research. >> keep your e-mails and tweets coming through. worldwide@cnbc.com. you can find us on twitter as well. >> @cnbcwex. @seemacnbc. we are taking your questions and comments. you're writing in to tell us what you would do if you won the massive lottery in spain today. they are paying out more than 2 billion euros. >> you didn't tell us what you would do with the money if you were to win. >> i would definitely give to charity. >> of course. >> for sure. whatever you do comes back to you. >> karma. >> and also giving thanks as well. people that have helped me through my life, it is nice to be able to help them then, right? >> especially family members.

>> yeah. and also, i wouldn't tell people, though. i wouldn't tell them. >> you would keep it a secret that you just become a billionaire. >> precisely. i might buy a piece of art. >> and your friends may can sk you for money then? >> well, you want to be accepted for what you are, not for what you have. >> no dollar sign next to you. >> no. exactly. you're also writing in to tell us the most atrocious movies that you have seen. which ones should have been canceled. "alien" has come up a couple of times. sony's top lawyer says the controversial movie pulled from theaters last week may still see the light of day. we'll bring you the details, next. you're watching "worldwide exchange" on this beautiful monday.

mourners have been leaving candles at a makeshift memorial for the two new york police officers killed by a gunman on saturday. the gunman fled to a subway station and then killed himself. president obama has called new york's police commissioner offering federal asis the answer. let's get out to our nbc's tracie potts live in washington with the details.

tracey? seema, there's a lot of back and forth on who is responsible for this, not just the gunman but the environment a that led to it. former mayor rudy giuliani said president obama has attributed to the hate the police sentiment that has inspired and encouraged people like this 28-year-old suspect to go after police officers. the new york officers' union has said that the protesters on the streets, violent protests have sparked that type of anti-police sentiment. but then the families of those who have been targeted by police, eric garner, michael brown, who were shot by police, i should say, are calling for calm. there are others who have said in new york that the governor there is asking people to just back off for a moment because the tensions there are very, very high after the shooting of eric garner. and now the shooting of the two police officers, one of whom was a newlywed.

the other was a married father of two. and now new york is not only investigating what happened, but also trying to deal with the attentions that have risen as a result of that. also worth noting, this man, this 28-year-old, had a former girlfriend in baltimore. the same day he was accused of shooting her. baltimore did send an alert to the new york police department to say he's there and we think he's going after shooting police officers, but that alert showed up less than one hour before these officers were shot. >> definitely a tragic story. tracie potts, thank you for bringing us the latest. now before we head to break, these are your headlines today. president obama soft ups his tone on north korea saying the sony hack attack was cyber vandalism, not an act of war. and the santa rally set to continue on wall street with futures pointing higher after the best weekend in almost two years. and energy stocks leading the way high aer in europe as coil recovers some of its losses. xkç

welcome back. president obama is backing off some strong comments he made last week over the cyber attack at sony pictures that true the eye of north korea. landon dowdy is here with more. >> the u.s. is moving to prevent anger with north korea from getting out of control following the hacking attack. the white house is still weighing in on how to punish north korea after the fbi determined the government was responsible. north korea has denied any involvement and vows to strike back against any u.s. retaliation. president obama tells cnn one option could be to return north korea to the u.s. list of state sponsors of terrorism, but he says that sony hacking is not an act of war but rather an act of

cyber vandalism. >> we're going to be in this environment, in this new world with both state and non-state actors will have the capacity to disrupt our lives in all sorts of ways. we have to do a much better job of guarding against that. >> sony canceled plans last week to release "the interview" in theaters on christmas, but the new york post expects the studio will still put out the film possibly for free on their streaming video website. "meet the press" is told that the movie will eventually see the light of day. >> sony only delayed this. sony has been fighting to get this picture distributed and it will be distributed. how it's going to be distributed, i don't think anybody knows quite yet, but it's going to be distributed. and what sony has been trying to do is to get the picture out to the public, but at the same time be sure that the rights of its

employees and the rights of the moving public are protected. >> china is weighing in on the sony hacking and beijing says it opposes all forms of cyber attacks but stops short of directly condemning the incident at sony pictures or calling for action against north korea. back to you. >> thank you very much for that. happy holidays. and let's take a look at the other top stories. it's the biggest and busiest day of the year for u.p.s. the company expects to deliver 34 million packages today. the most in company history. it's also a big test following last year's embarrassing and costly holiday disaster when millions of packages did not arrive in time for christmas. u.p.s. has spent a half billion to avoid an operating system to quickly reroute systems. louisa, three days until christmas, have you sent all your packages? >> i feel really sorry for them. we wait until the very last minute, the entire world, and

then we say, oh, they didn't do a good job because they weren't able to deliver 6 billion packages. >> shouldn't you have faith in the shipping companies if they say they will deliver this package in the next 24 hours, it should be at its destination at that timeframe. >> when god opens a zipper and you have a flood of ice and snow, come on. >> you're right. >> i don't know, i have a lot of sympathy for the companies where the pressure is put on at the very last minute. and every year it's like, well, you can do it faster than last year. but there's a physical limit as well, isn't there? i can't swim to the u.s. in an hour ever, i don't think. >> you definitely don't want to be an overpromising event in under delivery, like we have seen in the past. >> maybe there's some electronic plate changes so a couple of -- >> are you the grinch? >> no, not at all. i'm just saying, maybe there's a big change to maybe we'll be able to deliver things quicker overseas. >> oh, yeah. absolutely. i like where your head is at.

>> plate movement -- science. tomorrow is expected to be the busiest shopping day in britain's high streets. visa europe is predicting 1.3 billion pounds to be spent and 34 million transactions. that means an increase of 6% to 7% on last year's figure. >> i went to harris for the second time and couldn't breathe. it was so busy. i was just so -- >> when did you go? >> i went on sunday, yesterday. how would you explain it? >> a very high-end -- >> shopping. >> it is not a mall, it's like a very high-end store. it is a real experience. very fancy. >> so festive. >> i did make a special visit to regent shop to go to a toy story last sunday, not this past sunday. >> who are you buying a toy story? >> friend's children and all that kind of stuff. and the line was silly to think i could get in. because the line was a snake the

entire way, the fat way of the street and the long way. regent street was full of people. >> you know why? everyone wants an elsa doll. the frozen doll. >> what is an elsa doll? >> from the movie "frozen." >> the disney hit this year. anyway, that's what kids want, i hear. it's on their christmas list. >> i decided i was going to wait and buy that present later. >> just go online so you don't have to deal with people. european markets today, we're looking at slightly higher markets across the board. we're still hanging on to that picture at the moment. the u.s. futures -- >> u.s. futures right now, remember, the stocks did end higher on friday. not at session highs but nevertheless a gain on wall street. the s&p 500 right now indicating a higher open by around 9 points. the dow jones industrial is up 75 points in pre-market trade. remember, the s&p and dow have now erased their losses for

december. we'll also get you a rundown of what to watch this trading day. november existing home sales are out at 10:00 a.m. eastern. sales are forecast to have dropped last month after rising 1% in october. there's just one company reporting earnings, steelcase, which specializes in office furniture. let's talk more about the markets and what to expect with alan nutman at bull's eye options. some traders are referring to last week's move as the fed-induced rally. would you say that's accurate, just yellen that drove stocks higher or did the oil rebound also play a role in the rally? >> i really don't think it's either. you know, the fed is the fed. they are going to raise and lower interest rates over a period of time. however they want to. the markets have been resill yept and strong. i think it was just profit taking for essentially no reason. and once we hit that 5% threshhold, buyers stepped up once again. if you take the distance of the

sell-off once again and add it onto the highs, we have another 5% measures move on the upside once again. so there's still a lot of potential here. and the earnings start to come out after the first of the year. and that's going to drive the markets one more time. >> we'll breakdown last week's moves because traders did go bargain hunting in the energy sector. in the energy sector gaining 9%. do you think the rebound will continue? >> i think people will slowly realize there's a positive for most companies. 90% or so of the s&p are not in the energy sector as far as producers go, so they are going to benefit from the lower energy prices. but there's the initial stock sheing the big price drop. if you look at crude oil trading between 54 and 59 with a lot of action in between, but a push above 59 targets 65 in the oversold situation could correct itself to give a little bit of relief. if crude stops going down, that

helps that whole energy sector which has been dragging behind the stock market. and that could be another catalyst as well. >> hi, alan, it's louisa. what are the other areas where you are seeing a lot of interest at the moment, a lot of activity? >> well, what i'm looking for right now as we were just talking about the laggers a little bit here. some of the sector that is have not participated, technologies have not been high as a group since november. so it's slowly trudging along, but we are pushing near the 20% level in the mdx 100 for the year. so looking at the technology stocks, facebook is braking out above 80. that target's 90. looking at qualcomm, i think there's a proxy play for the qs looking for apple with a heavyweight in apple. i saw 15% apple in the qs. breaking out there targeting about 112 with a $6 sell-off. found support at 100, that happened to be the highs last

september. so that held has a strong base and look for tech to have a surge coming into the earnings season. and remind us how well the corporations are doing. >> keep in mind, there's one tech stock down 15% over the past three months under performing the s&p. that would be google. google is down 15% over the past few months. >> what goes up must come down, right? >> google for whatever reason is a forgotten about stock. >> what are you doing for christmas, alan? >> technically -- >> alan, go ahead. >> i was going to say, it's a forgotten about stock and has support at 500. and you want to play that -- i want to play the options being an options tradeder so you have limited risk, but the high dollar stock, it has some challenges being $500. >> we have to go. i was going to listen to your christmas plans but we have ten seconds left. alan, thanks a lot. have a happy holiday. thank you to all of you for your tweets and e-mails.

dave, robert, jeff, david, rob bi, happy holidays. see you tomorrow.

it won't be long now with santa clause coming to town. and who is making the giant's nice list after last week? shipping evils, it's crunch time for fedex and ups to deliver 10% more packages this holiday season than the same time a year ago. and the hacking fallout. north korea denying it breached sony, but a warning of consequences if the u.s. takes action. however, the u.s. is standing by its opinion and president obama

is talking about "the interview." " squawk box" begins right now. good morning, everybody. welcome to "squawk box" on cnbc. i'm becky quick along with joe kernan and andrew ross-sorkin. for millions of americans, you are shopping and traveling. but two storms are threatening to bring heavy know to parts of the country. we'll have a forecast from our friends at the weather channel in a few minutes. and december is traditionally a strong time for stocks and this year looks to follow that trend. in the last ten years the s&p has closed higher 80% of the time with the final two weeks tending to be strong with an average return of nearly 2%. it's a holiday shortened week but there's no shortage of economic data to digest. today we get existing home sales. then tomorrow it's durable